Assistant with own child

[ladders]

Hi there, so..,.,I'm intending to employ a lady to work 3 days per week with me. For that, I intend to pay her £27.50 per day and her son will be with me (therefore taking a space!) she intends to be self employed. Can anyone tell me the best way to lay this out from a tax point of view and also how does she declare her son? Help!!!!

[Sharon 72]

Hi

Can I ask please if you actually got this answered at all in any way, and how you have progress forward. I am in a similar situation, and any help would be appreciated.

thanks x

[sarah707]

This is a money question so I have moved it to the book keeping part of the forum.

I am sure someone will come along to help :D

[loocyloo]

my assistant used to come a couple of afternoons a week afterschool and brought 2 children with her!

i only needed an asssistant numberswise for 1.5hrs, but as lots of older ones, it was helpful if she stayed a bit later!

she used to give me an invoice every month for hours worked (just the 1.5hr/day) and payment due ( i paid minimum hourly wage ) and i used to give her children tea. it worked for us, but probably wouldn't for everyone.

my assistant was self employed as she did a few bits and pieces for all sorts of things. i left the paying of tax & insurance to her!

[jadavi]

I really wanted to take on an assistant and her child but realised it was simply not business sense to take up a child's place like that.

[MrAnchovy]

It is likely that HMRC will view this job as employment, not self employed. If this is the case, you will have to pay at least National Minimum Wage and (assuming you pay at least £107pw in total) register as an employer and deduct tax and NI and pay Employers NI yourself. You can deduct all of this as an allowable expense.

You can charge her for the place and the normal tax treatment for this will apply (i.e. you pay Income Tax and Class 4 NI on the income but can take 10% wear and tear allowance as an expense). If she can claim the childcare element of Working Tax Credit she may get up to 70% of this back.

If you want to try to keep this as a self-employed arrangement, you need to get clearance from HMRC - contact the Status Enquiries Team (http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kb5/hmrc/contactus/view.page?record=jriKalW18IQ). If they will permit this, you can deduct the amounts you pay as an allowable expense but you cannot take a wear and tear allowance for the place, and she cannot claim the childcare element of WTC.

Whilst in some cases a childminder might consider running the risk of not getting clearance for self-employed status for an assistant, because of the National Minimum Wage issue in this case the cost to you could be significant if she decided to take you to an employment tribunal.